OAI harvest and PORSCHE: Testing intraLibrary 3.5
Quick recap: a requirement of PORSCHE was to transfer metadata between Jorum and the NHS eLearning repository:
“The primary aim of the PORSCHE project is to provide “seamless access to academic and clinical learning resources to healthcare students”… “establishing the basis for a long term national partnership between the NHS and academia by sharing of appropriately licensed content between Jorum and the NeLR”. To achieve this, PORSCHE has been exploring metadata transfer between the two repositories using OAI-PMH. Jorum is currently running on a modified DSpace (v1.5.2) and the NeLR on intraLibrary (3.1) both of which will of course expose an OAI-PMH feed, however, there would be an additional requirement for each repository to ingest each other’s feeds which is functionality that is not currently supported by either platform, though it is supported by the NDLR running on a later version of DSpace (v1.6) while PORSCHE are currently liaising with Intrallect to develop similar functionality in intraLibrary.”
https://acerep.wordpress.com/2011/06/21/oer-infrastructure-discussions-with-mimas-and-ndlr/
Along with the PORSCHE team I’ve recently been testing a pre-release intraLibrary 3.5 which now includes an OAI-PMH harvest facility so that the metadata from external repositories can appear as a “collection” in intraLibrary. In the context of our own ACErep project, for example, this would also allow us to harvest the ALPS collections from the repositories at the University of Leeds and York St John, thereby offering a form of federated searching as collections are all brought under the standard intraLibrary search mechanism.
Harvest admin allows multiple harvests to be set up with the relevant oai url; user selects the desired collection (oai set) from the drop-down.
Selecting the OER collection from the Leeds Met repository (corresponds to OAI set=23) I am able to select harvested metadata format (dc or lom) and type of harvest (All Records, Since Last Success, From Date), time to run, and select intraLibrary Group/Process and Collection:
Bingo!
Bingo!
Bingo!
…and then, crucially for ACErep, I’m able to search my harvested collection (called mrnick) by SRU:
Not sure yet when we’ll be able to get intraLibrary 3.5 but it should then be straightforward to harvest ALPS collections from the University of Leeds and York St John and search all ALPS resources across the three institutions from an ALPS branded interface.
In the context of PORSCHE, when the NHS is running 3.5 they will be able to harvest relevant collections from Jorum (e.g. HE – Medicine and Dentistry) into the NeLR.
<set>
<setSpec>hdl_123456789_39</setSpec>
<setName>HE – Medicine and Dentistry</setName>
</set>
http://dspace.jorum.ac.uk/oai/request?verb=ListRecords&metadataPrefix=oai_dc&set=hdl_123456789_39
Work to achieve similar from Jorum is ongoing via liaison with PORSCHE – see also my post on the UKCoRR blog at http://ukcorr.blogspot.com/2011/12/jorum-steering-group.html and this recent post on the Jorum blog on Coming improvements to the Jorum UserExperience
EasyDeposit now works with intraLibrary!
First the good news – Charles from Intrallect came to work with Mike and I last week and between us we were able to extend EasyDeposit to work with intraLibrary; there is still some work to do to capture the full ukoer application profile but essentially it works!
I have configured a workflow in intraLibrary to publish immediately to an open collection so a user is now able to log-in to EasyDeposit directly from the web, upload a file, add metadata (including 1 of the 6 flavours of CC licence) and publish – I’ve done a quick screen capture of the thing in action here:
http://repository.leedsmet.ac.uk/main/flash/demo/easy_oer.htm
(apologies if the narration isn’t always relevant to the image – Captivate has an annoying habit of not updating the screen image until there’s a mouse click!)
In addition to our own intraLibrary repository I’ve also included SWORD service documents for the DSpace and EPrints* demo repositories, the NHS eLearning repository (intraLibrary), Jorum (DSpace) , York St John (Archivalware*) – however, I don’t actually have accounts for Jorum or the NHS so have been unable to test. It should work with both repositories immediately, the only caveat I think being that there will need to be a suitable collection configured with the appropriate metadata application profile.
* The client won’t currently work with EPrints or Archivalware (this is the Bad News – see below)
EPrints:
Unable to get EPrints to accept a METS package by SWORD I posted to the eprints-tech list…it seems that the default SWORD unzip package in EPrints 3.2.4 is somewhat basic and doesn’t really work; thanks to Ian Stuart of OA-RJ for info and who has written a plug-in for EPrints that will get round the problem….in the short term I really need a kindly EPrints tech admin to install the plug-in so we can re-test. In the longer term, however, Stuart Lewis has pointed out that hopefully SWORD v2 will help the situation by adding a ‘default’ packaging format to its specification; in SWORD v1 there is no ‘default’ packaging format meaning that each SWORD server can choose which packaging formats to accept. Upcoming releases of DSpace and EPrints will include SWORD v2 functionality.
Archivalware:
I haven’t yet been able to properly test with Archivalware but I know Rob has had some problems. PTFS Europe were actually commissioned to add SWORD functionality to Archivalware as part of ACErep and I need to learn more about how it’s been implemented – I suspect any problems are associated with the packaging format and it might be worth PTFS looking at the SWORD v2 spec to ensure it is compatible with the new standard.
ALPS Mobile Learning Hackathon and wiki
Recently I attended a “hackathon” at the University of Leeds, a day long event which brought together programmers and educators/clinicians/information managers to work together on developing apps to support learning and teaching. It aimed to be an informal, fun day of sharing, learning, meeting new people and exploring the exciting possibilities opened up through the use of mobile technology.
It was decided to set up a wiki to record the event and to serve as a discussion space, see http://alpscetl.pbworks.com/
ACErep update for the PORSCHE Executive Board meeting on Wednesday 10th August 2011
This was the final meeting of the PORSCHE Executive Board – I attended by telephone and submitted this written update from ACErep:
After initial testing of the EasyDeposit SWORD client with the Jorum development server (see April 6th update) we have now configured the client with a SWORD endpoint for each of the several repository platforms we hope to deposit into. These include a demo install of DSpace – http://demo.dspace.org/ – the NDLR (in lieu of Jorum), the WRRO EPrints repository and our own intraLibrary repository.
We have been able to successfully deposit into http://demo.dspace.org/ and into the NDLR (also DSpace) but the client fails with EPrints with a generic error message. I have not yet established what the problem might be and queries have been raised with ‘sword-app-tech@lists.sourceforge.net’ and ‘eprints-tech@ecs.soton.ac.uk’.
SWORD has now also been implemented at York St John (Archivalware) and is currently being tested – I have not yet been able to test with EasyDeposit.
DSpace, EPrints and Archivalware should all accept METS packages but in order to deposit into intraLibrary it is necessary to extend EasyDeposit to package as IMS – negotiation is currently underway to carry out this work in partnership with Intrallect hopefully in time for the ALPS Showcase on 16th September* (there will still also the requirement to standardise Application Profiles across the repositories).
In terms of repository cross-search it was suggested that we may be able explore doing this via the DSpace (v1.6) API (the version run by the NDLR) though I have not yet seen any documentation though our content has now been successfully harvested into the NDLR (test install) via OAI-PMH.
* This work has now been scheduled for w/c 29th August
EPrints & SWORD – can you help?
I’ve installed Stuart Lewis’ EasyDeposit sword client – http://easydeposit.swordapp.org/ – and configured it with several sword endpoints covering the several repository platforms we hope to deposit into:
http://training1.eprints.org/ (Thanks to Dave Tarrant)
http://repository-intralibrary.leedsmet.ac.uk/
http://www.ndlr.ie/ (Thanks to Phil Franks)
I’ve been able to successfully deposit into http://demo.dspace.org/ and into the NDLR (also DSpace) but the client fails with the EPrints training install with a generic error message – I don’t know EPrints very well so don’t know if it’s a problem with EasyDeposit or the configuration of the EPrints repository I’m trying to deposit into. I can see two collections in the client (see below) and had a quick rummage around in training1.eprints.org but can’t see an obvious way to configure collections [am Training Admin]….any EPrints folk out there able to help?
(It also won’t yet work into IntraLibrary but that’s due to the fact that EasyDeposit packages as METS and IL only accepts IMS-CP.)
Game-Informed Risk Assessment? – A Labyrinth based toolkit for managing a good practice risk assessment workflow and guidance for open educational resources
Just a quick post live from #elhealth2011 – just seen Stewart Cromar from Edinburgh University talking about “labyrinth” as used by the MEDEV toolkit – http://www.medev.ac.uk/ourwork/oer/toolkits/
Also had very brief discussions with Stewart and PORSCHE team about the possibility of implementing a similar system at another institution – I think it has the potential to fulfil our deposit use-case for ACErep (and OER in general) . Basically the toolkit leads a user through the process of file-upload, metadata addition, appropriate licensing and syndication to several destinations – Jorum, other repositories*, Web 2.0 services like You-Tube.
*I’ve also been pestering one of the MEDEV developers about implementing SWORD which would be fulfil this requirement (as I understand, currently syndication to Jorum will be by RSS harvest.) He’s sat behind me so will try to get him to comment here!
OER infrastructure – discussions with Mimas and NDLR
As I posted recently over on repositorynews and as ukoer folk will still be aware, from 1st August, Jorum, historically overseen jointly by the national data-centres in Edinburgh (EDINA) and Manchester (Mimas), will be managed exclusively by Mimas and will liaise more closely with the NDLR in Ireland.
Yesterday I took part in a telephone conference organised by the PORSCHE project team with representatives of Mimas, the NDLR and their technical partners Enovation – this post is to summarise the discussion and describe the processes of data transfer required by PORSCHE and ACErep.
Just to emphasise at the outset that Mimas are extremely positive about moving forward with a community driven process for the development of Jorum – informed by the ukoer programme and projects like PORSCHE and ACErep – but it is still very early days and we should be careful not to raise expectations unrealistically – the service does not pass to Mimas until August who are still in the process of appointing a Jorum Technical Coordinator – a role that is obviously central to these discussions.
The primary aim of the PORSCHE project is to provide “seamless access to academic and clinical learning resources to healthcare students”… “establishing the basis for a long term national partnership between the NHS and academia by sharing of appropriately licensed content between Jorum and the NeLR”. To achieve this, PORSCHE has been exploring metadata transfer between the two repositories using OAI-PMH. Jorum is currently running on a modified DSpace (v1.5.2) and the NeLR on intraLibrary (3.1) both of which will of course expose an OAI-PMH feed, however, there would be an additional requirement for each repository to ingest each other’s feeds which is functionality that is not currently supported by either platform, though it is supported by the NDLR running on a later version of DSpace (v1.6) while PORSCHE are currently liaising with Intrallect to develop similar functionality in intraLibrary.
N.B. There may be an additional requirement for PORSCHE to transfer files as well as metadata (i.e. full content packages) between the two systems and it was suggested that OAI-ORE (Open Archives Initiative Object Reuse and Exchange) might meet this requirement – I don’t know enough about this standard to comment. (In intraLibrary I think it is possible to use a custom metadata template to expose the URI for the full content package in the OAI-PMH feed – might this be a possibility for file transfer?)
In lieu of a Jorum software upgrade to match the specification of their Irish counterpart, the NDLR have agreed to test the intraLibrary OAI-PMH feed (both from the NeLR and the Leeds Met repository) into their test-server which should be relatively straightforward (some metadata mapping notwithstanding). Moreover DSpace (v1.6) includes an API that supports search and retrieve and v1.8 due for release in October of this year includes an improved (RESTful) API which may preclude the need for further development of the Jorum API – identified as a pre-requisite for both ACErep and PORSCHE.
In summary, a proof-of concept metadata exchange will be developed between the NHS Repository and the NDLR, future work by Jorum with hopefully mean that this can this concept can then be replicated:
OAI-PMH transfer between DSpace and intraLibrary
Just a note that the NDLR is already ingesting OAI-PMH from Jorum but I’ve spotted an issue in that the resource URL isn’t necessarily being included in the simple record, appearing only in the full record (unlinked) in a dc:identifier field – see https://dspace.ndlr.ie/jspui/simple-search?query=ukoer for examples including this one from Leeds Met https://dspace.ndlr.ie/jspui/handle/10633/29188
N.B. It looks to me like this has arisen in instances where there are multiple dc:identifier fields where the first isn’t a URL – ours often have an intraLibrary ID in the first field (see below). I don’t expect this will be a major issue to resolve?
Unlinked Jorum handle in full metadata record
Trigger presentation at eLearning in Health 2011 Conference
I will be presenting a trigger presentation at the eLearning in Health Conference to be held on 27th and 28th June at the Aston Conference Centre in Birmingham. Conference web-site is here, abstract below.
Intended Learning Outcomes:
– Learn more about the developing institutional and national OER infrastructures supported by JISC
– Discuss how these can be streamlined across the sector and improved/adapted to more fully support subject specific requirements (e.g. health)
Abstract:
The ALPS CETL repository project (ACErep) is examining the requirements of a repository infrastructure in local, regional and national contexts to more effectively facilitate sharing and reuse of appropriately licensed medical teaching, learning and assessment material.
Three institutions in the ALPS consortium – the University of Leeds, Leeds Metropolitan University and York St John University – all use different commercial platforms for their teaching and learning repositories. In addition there is the national HE/FE repository Jorum, and the NHS National eLearning Repository (NeLR).
Informed by a user-group of institutional stakeholders, the goal of ACErep is to develop a clearly branded web-site from where staff at the respective institutions can:
- deposit resources into their own institutional repository
- cross-search the repositories from a single interface
In addition, we have developed ties with the JISC funded PORSCHE project at Newcastle University which aims to provide seamless access to academic and clinical learning resources for healthcare students primarily from the respective collections in Jorum and the NeLR.
The project utilises well-established repository technologies and has adapted an Open Source client to differentially deposit into a user’s institutional repository and liaised with Jorum to harvest metadata from multiple repositories. ACErep and PORSCHE are also working with Jorum on their development of an Open API (Application Programming Interface) upon which we can build a bespoke search portal. This work, in turn, builds on a prototype developed in collaboration with the Xpert repository at Nottingham University.
This approach will have the benefit of digital assets being preserved in one location (an institutional repository) while providing multiple points of access as well as allowing the ALPS branded web-site and the institutional repositories to “piggyback” on Jorum’s Google pagerank thereby improving discoverability.
The presentation will comprise a summary of the ACErep project to date; the emphasis will not be technical though technical implications and requirements will be discussed.
Attendees: eLearning professionals in health related fields
Project update
One of the most challenging aspects of ACErep continues to be working across multiple institutions and organisations and recently progress has stalled somewhat as we liaise with our partners and wait for development work essential to the overall infrastructure.
In November last year we were able to build a prototype using Xpert which harvests OAI-PMH from our repository at Leeds Met and which we are then able to selectively search by keyword. We had initially hoped to work with Jorum but at that time there was no Open API, nor were there any plans to harvest by OAI-PMH, so we liaised instead with Pat Lockley of Xpert who was able to help with both requirements.
A lot has happened since November however, both at Xpert and Jorum. Pat is moving on to another (OER related) post which raises questions for us around the sustainability of that service now it has lost its key developer and I have been working with the PORSCHE project at Newcastle University which aims to provide seamless access to academic and clinical learning resources for healthcare students primarily from the respective collections in Jorum and the NHS National eLearning Repository (NeLR). As such, PORSCHE has also requested that Jorum harvest by OAI-PMH and provide an open API; the project team includes the Jorum service manager Hiten Vaghmaria as well as Kate Lomax of the NeLR (which, like Leeds Met’s repository, is also based on intraLibrary.) Jorum have now released a first iteration of an open API and hopefully both projects, and the UKOER community at large, can now work with the national OER service to develop that API to meet our requirements – PORSCHE’s Suzanne Hardy has set up a the Jorum API discussion space (wiki) at http://jorumapi.pbworks.com/w/page/35601929/Jorum-API-discussion-space. I am, in fact, yet to contribute to the discussion myself partly due to a lack of knowledge around API development – I’m far from clear, for example, how we may most effectively use an API to return just a subset of the resources in Jorum (i.e. ALPS/medical resources). In the Xpert prototype we just filtered on keyword but this feels a little unsatisfactory and Pat suggested a custom URL search would be better…
The other pieces of the jigsaw are repository-shaped and variously lacking the dove-tailing standards required to make the model workable. At Leeds University the learning and teaching repository is ExLibris’ DigiTool while York St John have a system called ArchivalWare, both systems are OAI-PMH compliant but do not support SWORD – development work is underway to rectify this at York St John while Jodie has set up an out of the box test install of e-prints to investigate OER object management.
Mike has also made some progress with EasyDeposit which is now working on a Leeds Met server and, after a few teething problems, will now successfully deposit a METS package to Jorum (DSpace), we will still need to test with EPrints (METS should be OK I think) and ArchivalWare when SWORD is integrated with that platform…probably METS again. There is an issue with intraLibrary, however, in that it only accepts IMSCP by SWORD, not METS, so we will also need to write an IMS content packager for EasyDeposit.
We are very grateful to Tamsin Treasure-Jones of ALPs for her continued support with this challenging project and I’m hopeful that all of these pieces can be put together over the Spring and Summer as we move towards a local, regional and national infrastructure for sharing medical teaching, learning and assessment material with an approach that will have the benefit of digital assets being preserved in one location (an institutional repository) while providing several points of access as well as allowing the ALPS branded web-site and the institutional repositories to “piggyback” on Jorum’s Google pagerank and improving discoverability.
Branding, repositories, OER and awareness raising: some thoughts on embedding OERs
Interesting post from Suzanne Hardy of PORSCHE over on her OER2 blog:
Project team
Jodie
drpdouglas
garethfrith
jiscjanus
ljshipley
MikeT
patspoor
-
Nick
tamsintj
taylor08
wendyluker
HelenWest
ALPS CETL Repository Project 